NBC’s Collinsworth discusses Dolphins, as he prepares to call Sunday’s game at Patriots
The Dolphins - who spent much of this century teetering on the cusp of relevance - were given only three appearances in the first 16 years of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, considered the league’s marquee television package.
Sunday’s game at the Patriots will be their third in 11 months, a signal that Miami is now viewed as a contender.
Last year’s Dolphins Sunday night appearances weren’t an accurate showcase of what this offense was for most of last season, or reflective of the explosiveness that Miami showed in its 36-34 win against the Chargers on Sunday.
Miami was decent offensively, but not great, in an NBC-televised win against Pittsburgh in October and delivered one of its worst offensive performances of the year in a loss at the Chargers on NBC in December.
NBC’s Cris Collinsworth, who works Sunday’s game with Mike Tirico, is eager to see what Tua Tagovailoa can do if he stays healthy for a full season.
“I think all he’s got left to do is win something,” Collinsworth recently told NBC-6’s Sara Cardona as part of an availability with stations that are owned and operated by NBC. Collinsworth made the comments before Tagovailoa threw for 466 yards in Sunday’s game in Los Angeles.
“It was cool; they made the playoffs last year,” Collinsworth said. “I was at the game in Cincinnati when he got hurt, in a box with the commissioner. Not only did it take my breath away, but you could see him go pale as well when he was hurt on the field.”
The key now for Tagovailoa “is staying healthy and having a chance to do an entire season what he did early on,” Collinsworth said “And if you ever interviewed Tua, you love him. He’s a sweetheart. Everyone loves him.
“This is a really exciting team to watch play. This is like watching the 4 by 100 relay in the Olympics or something. People are so fast around the field, whether it’s the running backs or whether it’s the crazy receivers. Jaylen Waddle is unbelievable and Tyreek [Hill] is faster than he is and Raheem Mostert and now you’ve got [De’Von] Achane and all these guys.
“It’s different. Every game we do that they’re involved, it just looks different on the field than it does with some other teams. You wonder how far it can go.
“Can they win a title? They’re sitting there in this division that arguably by most experts’ pick would have Bill Belichick and the Patriots ranked as the fourth team and that’s unbelievable when you think about that.
“It’s going to be a real test for this team this year. Tua already has proven he can do it. He just has to do it for a whole year and then have some success in the playoffs.”
Collinsworth said this Dolphins defense, under Vic Fangio, “is going to look a lot different. He kind of has this grumpy look on his face, but he’s a fun guy. I love talking to him. He’s the greatest but he also is a very sophisticated defensive coordinator and he’s really savvy, probably a little like Belichick.
“The nuanced difference of Vic Fangio’s defense is you have to go back and watch the film two or three times. When you are on the field, you don’t get to roll that defense back and forth. They all sort of look the same but they’re all just a little bit different. The minute you think you get a handle on what it is he’s doing, there’s a little slight, sudden adjustment that comes on and then you throw an interception.”
As Collinsworth references, a lot of Fangio’s pre-snaps defenses look the same, which historically has created confusion for offenses at times. And Collinsworth explained how that could help Miami’s pass rushers.
“A guy like a Jaelan Phillips,” Collinsworth said. “Does he get that extra tenth of a second to rush the quarterback because that quarterback is momentarily confused just for a second [where] I’m not quite sure I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing, and hold it and get a sack.
“Hopefully in December, we get Jalen Ramsey back and you get to see him with Xavien Howard on the other side. I’m really excited to see what this team might look like.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2023 at 10:23 AM.
